Key events
India win the toss and will bowl first
Good news! The drizzle seems to be abating and the covers are being peeled off. The captain’s go out to toss up. A special moment for Sophie Molineux albeint the coin does not land her way. India insert the hosts on what should be a green-ish wicket with something in it for the bowler’s first up.
Sure enough there is some drizzle around in Sydney and the toss is delayed. The covers are over the wicket but the players are doing some warm ups on the outfield so it can’t be that heavy. Fingers crossed it blows over sharpish.
Preamble
James Wallace
Hello and welcome to the first T20I between Australia and India from Sydney as a new dawn breaks for Australian’ women’s cricket. Sophie Molineux will captain the side into a new era after Alyssa Healy announced she is calling time on her storied career.
Healy will take the reins for one last time during the ODI and one off Test part of India’s tour but today marks the first match in charge for Molineux. The decision to make th 28 year old left arm spinning all rounder raised a few eyebrows in some quarters, Molineux has an excellent track record in International cricket when she gets on the park but her career has been dogged by injury and she has missed a lot of cricket over the last few years.
“I think it’ll be pretty surreal” The new captain said in the build up to the series starting on what it will be like to step out with the arm band for the first time. “I’ve got a bit of family coming. It sort of has slipped into my mind the last couple of days how it’s going to feel to lead the team out and to sing the anthem.”
India will be the toughest of opponents in this series, Harmanpreet Kaur’s side are the reigning World Champions in ODI cricket and are looking to dominate the women’s game across formats in the way the Aussies have over the last decade.
Plenty to get stuck into then, the toss should be incoming, though my sources tell me there is some rain around in Sydney…
